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JOHN D. WATTLES & CO., Philadelphia, Pa. 



TEACHERS'-MEETINGS 



Their Necessity and Methods 



B 



H. CLAY 'TRUMBULL 



(JUN S 1896 



'!">/ 



PHILADELPHIA 

JOHN D. WATTLES & CO. 

1896 



K^ 




y^' 



Copyright, 1896, 

BY 

H. CLAY TRUMBULL 



I 
a micccesit^ in lever^ Scbool 



H Jtlcccssit^ in iBvcv^ School 

The " teachers'-meeting/' as that term is em- 
ployed in America, is a weekly gathering of the 
teachers of the Sunday-school for conference 
over the next lesson which they are to teach to 
their scholars. In Great Britain, such a gath- 
ering is known as the '' preparation class." It 
matters little, however, what the gathering is 
called, if only its nature and purpose-be under- 
stood while its discussion is in progress. 

Not every Sunday-school has a teachers'-meet- 
ing; yet without a teachers'-meeting there can 
be no true Sunday-school. This paradox rep- 
resents a truth that cannot safely be lost sight 
of in considering the Sunday-school and its 
needs. In the very nature of the Sunday- 
school, a teachers'-meeting is a necessity; and 
without a teachers'-meeting a Sunday-school in 

5 



name is not really a Sunday-school in fact. It 
lacks a prime essential. 

The modern Sunday-school in its integrity in- 
cludes the grouping of children and others into 
separate classes under individual teachers for the 
study of the Bible, and the combining of those 
separate classes into a school whole for united 
work under a common influence. Without the 
grouping into classes, there is no opportunity of 
reaching the scholars individually. Without the 
combining of the groups into a common whole, 
there can be no unity of impression on the entire 
membership of the school. 

In a true Sunday-school there must be both 
class work and school work, class instruction 
and school instruction, class influence and school 
influence. All this cannot be secured unless the 
leaders of the separate groups are brought to- 
gether in order to secure a common under- 
standing of their work and a fulness of mutual 
sympathy and purpose in its prosecution ; and 
for this a teachers'-meeting is necessaiy. 

6 



B Uleceeeitis in iBvct^ School 

Without a teachers'-meeting there is no agree- 
ment possible in the teachings of the various 
teachers in a Sunday-school ; nor is there any 
prospect of bringing up the poorer teachers in 
that school to the standard of those best quali- 
fied. If the teachers of a Sunday-school are not 
brought together to compare the results of their 
separate study, and to quicken one another's 
minds by mutual suggestions and corrections, 
they are not likely, on the one hand, to be in 
accord in their understanding or their teaching 
of the lesson they are to teach ; or, on the other 
hand, to be severally as well prepared for their 
teaching as if each one of them were possessed 
of the best thoughts and the wisest preparations 
of all. 

It is more than twenty-six centuries since the 
inspired prophet Amos asked : " Can two walk 
together except they be agreed ? " and in all 
this time his question has never been answered 
affirmatively. An equally important question, 
especially for the teachers in the same Sunday- 

7 



Ceacber6':s Olcctime 

school, is this : " Can two be sure they are 
agreed unless they come together before they 
begin their common walk ? " In fact, without a 
teachers^-meeting a Sunday-school at its best 
is not so much one school as it is an aggre- 
gation of schools ; each class being a little 
school by itself, without the gain which might 
come from the shared labors and attainments of 
its immediate neighbors. 

It matters not, so far, whether the superinten- 
dent be of average or of superior ability. The 
best superintendent in the world would be un- 
able, without the aid of a teachers'-meeting, to 
have such a Sunday-school as he could have 
with the aid of a teachers'-meeting ; for the 
teachers'-meeting is the chief agency of sys- 
tematic and controlling organization in a Sun- 
day-school. 

Men wise as " children of this world," or as 
" children of light," have been quick to recog- 
nize the value of councils in order to secure 
union of effort and unity of thought in organized 

8 



B Uleceesit^ in 1Bvcx>q Scbool 

work for aggressive action. Brigham Young 
was accustomed to gather his Mormon local 
preachers and his Sunday-school teachers in 
Salt Lake City, every Saturday afternoon, to 
instruct them as to what they were to preach 
and teach the next day. That was one cause of 
his remarkable hold on and power over the 
Mormon people. It is quite as important to 
have unity of teaching from the Bible, as unity 
of teaching from the Book of Mormon. 

The superior efficiency of an army over a mob 
is not in its leadership so much as in its sys- 
tematic organization. The ablest military com- 
mander conceivable would never expect to 
transform a mob into an army unless he could 
have all its membership under officers whom he 
had trained for the work, and whom he expected 
to train and guide in the work. The mere 
assignment of subordinates to positions of re- 
sponsibility in the organization by which the 
commander would bring a mob to army stand- 
ards, could not compass the work of transfor- 

9 



mation. Those officers must themselves be 
schooled together by that commander, in order 
to do their part severally and conjointly in that 
transforming process. 

The teachers'-meeting is the Sunday-school's 
" school of officers," whereby those who are 
leaders of groups may be made intelligent co- 
workers in a Sunday-school regiment. Without 
such an agency of organization no Sunday- 
school gathering of detached companies can 
become a regimental unit. In short, a Sunday- 
school without a teachers'-meeting is but mid- 
way in the process of transformation from a 
portion of the popular mob to a portion of the 
Sunday-school army. 

It is not that a Sunday-school superintendent 
is a military commander, and that his teachers'- 
meeting will enable him to drill and discipline 
his school through his subordinate officers. 
Nor is it that the superintendent is alone re- 
sponsible for the character and methods of the 
instruction given in the school, and that by 

lO 



B Ifleceselt^ in JEvcr^ Scbool 

means of a teachers'- meeting he can tell his 
teachers just what they may teach, and how. 
But it is that without a teachers'- meeting no 
superintendent can fully know the measure and 
needs of his teachers severally, or be able intel- 
ligently to give them help, and to make them 
helpful to others and to himself. 

In whatever light a superintendent's work as 
a superintendent may be viewed, it is impossible 
for him to perfect an organization in his school 
that shall give him the opportunity to know his 
teachers thoroughly and to make use of them 
wisely, unless he has them together week by 
week while they are preparing for their common 
work. 

How otherwise can a superintendent ascertain 
the measure of intelligence and consecration of 
his teachers severally, and be able to say 
whether or not they are doing their work as 
they ought to do it ? How otherwise can he 
bring up the standard of the poorer teachers, 
and make available to them the information and 

II 



enthusiasm and devotedness of his best teachers? 
Through what other agency can he both sift and 
train his teachers, and make himself felt by them 
all in their class work and in their school work ? 
Without this means of intercourse with his 
teachers collectively, and this means of observ- 
ing and guiding them in their preparation for 
what they have to do in the school which he 
superintends, a superintendent is little more 
than a leader of the general exercises of the 
school, without the opportunity of knowing and 
aiding the teachers in their several and collective 
needs. The class-teaching may be very good 
or very poor, for all that he knows or does. 
Practically, there are as many schools as there 
are classes, under his oversight. There is no 
one school current of good teaching in his 
school ; for it is only by means of the channel 
of a teachers'-meeting that a school current can 
be made to flow through a Sunday-school. The 
teachers do not know whether or not they are 
in agreement in their spirit and methods of 

12 



B meceestti^ in iBvct^ Scbool 

teaching ; and whatever their personal will may 
be, they cannot really be '' working together " 
with God. 

While the teachers'-meeting is essential to the 
very existence of a true Sunday-school as a true 
Sunday-school, and to the proper work of a 
teacher in his relation to his fellow-teachers and 
to the Sunday-school as a whole, it is also 
essential to the best preparation of the best 
teacher in any Sunday-school for his work as a 
teacher, in his immediate sphere of class-teach- 
ing. That the poorest teachers need the quick- 
ening influence and the instruction of a confer- 
ence with their fellow-teachers in preparation for 
teaching, all will admit. That the best teachers 
can do better with such an aid than without it, 
the best teachers are always prompt to recognize. 

Both in knowledge and in zeal we are stimu- 
lated by contact wath our fellows. '' Two are 
better than one " — in study ; " because they 
have a good reward for their labor." As '' iron 
sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the coun- 

13 



Zcacbcve'^ flQeettngs 

tenance of his friend " — in the teachers'-meeting. 
" Two eyes see more than one," says quaint old 
Matthew Henry. '^ Wise and profitable dis- 
course sharpens men's wits ; and those who 
have ever so much knowledge may, by confer- 
ence, have something added to them." 

In addition to the gain of knowledge concern- 
ing the lesson and its teaching that may come 
to the best informed teacher through his attend- 
ance at the teachers'-meeting, there is a gain to 
such a teacher through the disclosures in the 
teachers'-meeting of unsuspected difficulties in 
the understanding of the lesson by teachers of 
average ability. Many a well-informed teacher 
would fail to touch upon points in the les- 
son which peculiarly need explanation to his 
scholars, if he were not warned of the danger of 
misconception just there by what he hears in 
the teachers'-meeting before he meets his class. 

Rarely, indeed, does any teacher, however 
well prepared for his work he may have thought 
himself on going to the teachers'-meeting, come 

H 



B Tilcccesit^ in lBvcv>Q Scbool 



away from a conference over the lesson of the 
week with his fellow-teachers without feeling 
the necessity of changing his plan of teaching at 
some point which has been brought before his 
mind in new prominence during the discussions 
of that gathering. The fresh views of other 
teachers are almost sure to affect his views. 

The more a man knows about Sunday-school 
work, the more he values the teachers'-meeting 
as a help to his school and to his teachers if he 
is a superintendent, and to himself as a teacher 
if he is a teacher. At the first Sunday-school 
Assembly at the now famous camp-ground of 
Chautauqua, the writer of these words led a con- 
ference of superintendents in a free discussion 
concerning their official relation to the Sunday- 
schools of their charge. There were one hun- 
dred and thirty-seven superintendents in that 
conference. They were of ten or a dozen differ- 
ent denominations, and from various portions of 
our common country. One hundred and thirty- 
five of the one hundred and thirty-seven de- 

15 



clared it to be their deliberate conviction that 
the teachers'-meeting is absolutely indispensable 
to the success of a Sunday-school. 

That was quite a number of years ago. 
There has been progress since then. It is to 
be hoped that there could not now be found 
two out of a hundred and thirty-seven good 
superintendents who would suppose it possible 
to have such a Sunday-school as he ought to 
have without a teachers'-meeting. 

The writer of these words is now a Bible- 
class teacher in a well-conducted Sunday-school. 
He has been in Sunday-school work for more 
than forty years. His special duties, outside 
of the Sunday-school, require of him the careful 
study of the Sunday-school lessons of the Inter- 
national series, in advance of their use in the 
school where he is a teacher, including an 
examination of the best helps available to any 
Sunday-school teacher. He would not venture, 
as a rule, to go to his class as a teacher without 
the help of the teachers'-meeting of his Sunday- 

i6 



B Tilccceeit^ in iBvct^ Scbool 

school. If he did venture to go without this 
needed aid, the members of his class would note 
the lack. 

Apart from the question of any service which 
he might render to others by his share in the 
exercises of that gathering for mutual lesson- 
study, he values and feels the need of its stimu- 
lus and instructions for himself And his opin- 
ion, as based on his experience and observa- 
tion in the Sunday-school field, is, that any man 
who knows enough to be a good Sunday-school 
teacher knows that he cannot teach as he ought 
to teach without the help of the teachers'- 
meeting. 

As to zeal and enthusiasm, as well as union in 
the Sunday-school teachers' common work, the 
question of Qoheleth still seems timely and 
pertinent, ^' How can one be warm alone ? " 
Moreover, as to the teachers'-meeting, the Apos- 
tle's exhortation should be remembered : '' Let 
us consider one another to provoke unto love 
and good works ; not forsaking the assembling 

17 



n:eacbet0':s nQcetings 

of ourselves together, as the custom of some is, 
but exhorting one another [and stimulating and 
assisting one another] ; and so much the more, 
as ye see the day drawing nigh." 

There is now greater need than ever of the 
help that comes to the Sunday-school through 
the teachers'-meeting. And the teachers'-meet- 
ing was never more of an essential in every 
Sunday-school. 



i8 



II 



II 



jfeasfble Bv>eri?wbete 

That which must be, can be. A thing that 
is a necessity in this world is practically attain- 
able. Hence it follows, that, because a teachers'- 
meeting for conference over the next lesson is 
essential to the integrity of a Sunday-school as 
a Sunday-school, therefore a teachers'-meeting 
is feasible in any and every Sunday-school. 
There may be difficulties in the way of such a 
gathering, as there are likely to be in all paths 
of human duty, but those difficulties ought to 
be overcome, must be overcome, and can be 
overcome. 

Many a Sunday-school in the country is held 
at a church or in a schoolhouse that is reason- 
ably central to its constituency; but its teachers 
are widely scattered throughout the extended 
parish or township, and it seems next to im- 

21 



possible to bring them together at any common 
point — except at the hour of their ordinary Sun- 
day-school session. A large proportion of the 
teachers are of the gentler sex. It would hardly 
do for them to grope their way unattended 
over the lonely country roads to a teachers'- 
meeting on a week-day evening. On Sundays 
they could have the company of members of 
their family who attend the other church ser- 
vices, but on a week-day evening they would 
find no such escort. 

During a considerable portion of the year 
the country roads are wellnigh impassable ; it is 
difficult enough to travel over them by daylight 
on Sundays : to add the burden of a week-day 
evening journey seems unreasonable. The 
Sunday-school room is not likely to be warmed 
during the week-time in the winter months; and, 
at the best, it is an unsocial place for a small 
number of teachers to gather. For these and 
other reasons a teachers'-meeting is in many a 
country Sunday-school deemed impracticable. 



ffeaelble JBvct^vobcxc 

In city Sunday-schools the difficulties in the 
way of a teachers'-meeting are not the same 
as in the country; but they are positive and 
diverse. If it is a church Sunday-school, the 
teachers are likely to be persons whose time is 
closely occupied with the various engagements 
and activities of social life in the city. Their 
service in the Sunday-school is purely volun- 
tary : to ask them to add a week-day evening 
in addition to their Sunday service seems to 
many of them quite too much. 

If it be a mission-school, its location may be 
at a long distance from the homes of the teach- 
ers generally, and in a quarter of the city where 
some of the teachers would deem it unwise to 
go by themselves on a week-day evening. And 
however desirable, on general principles, a teach- 
ers'-meeting may be, most of the teachers in 
many a Sunday-school do not feel a binding 
obligation on them to attend one ; hence a 
teachers'-meeting is not deemed practically 
feasible in every city Sunday-school. 

23 



^eacbet0'= fiJleettn^s 

Just when to have a teachers'-meeting and 
where to hold it, are not always clear, yet the 
time and place must be decided on as pre- 
liminary to the necessary meeting. Again, in 
both city and country Sunday-schools there 
often seems to be a lack of a really good leader 
for the teachers'-meeting. The pastor may not 
be ready to undertake this work, or he may 
be unfitted for it ; for many a good preacher 
is a very poor teacher. The superintendent who 
is well qualified for the other duties of his posi- 
tion, may be obviously unsuited to this service. 
No one teacher may appear to have pre-eminent 
fitness for the leadership. Even though all other 
difficulties were removed, this one would still 
have to be faced. A teachers'-meeting must 
have a leader ; but, as yet, in many a Sunday- 
school the right person for a leader has not 
been found. 

That these difficulties i^i the way of a teach- 
ers'-meeting are real difficulties, cannot be ques- 
tioned. But that they are only difficulties, and not 

24 



afeaetble Bver^wbete 

barriers, is also obvious. They are difificulties 
to be met and overcome, not barriers to forbid 
all hope of progress. This is a truth that ought 
to be recognized by every superintendent who 
realizes that a teachers'-meeting is a necessity 
in his Sunday-school, and that he must have it 
— in spite of the difificulties in its way. Not all 
of the difificulties noted are to be found in any 
one Sunday-school. Each school has its own 
difificulties, which it must meet in its own way. 
But if all the difificulties noted, and a great many 
more, were to be found in a single Sunday- 
school, they could all be met and removed — 
because they must be. 

Where the teachers of a country Sunday- 
school are widely scattered, and many of them 
would be unable to reach a common center 
without an escort, it is quite feasible to secure a 
team, or teams, to go from house to house on 
the evening of the teachers'-meeting, and take 
the teachers to the place of gathering. This 
plan is every way practicable. It has been pur- 

25 



sued in various places for a series of years, and 
it might well be adopted more generally. 

In some cases a half-dozen teachers can be 
brought from one direction by one team, a half- 
dozen more from another direction by another 
team, and so on all over the area of the Sunday- 
school field. In other cases an omnibus, or a 
" barge," or a "band-wagon," or a large carryall, 
could go the rounds more generally, and pick 
up the teachers from their houses severally. 
Such an arrangement can be made, with a little 
forethought, in almost any community, as it 
already has been made in many a community. 

The difficulty of bad roads in a country town- 
ship is, after all, no greater on the evening of a 
teachers'-meeting than on the evening of a wed- 
ding, or of a social party, or of a singing-school ; 
and there are few country townships in which 
the roads would be deemed a positive barrier to 
assemblings of this sort during any considerable 
portion of the year. If, indeed, the roads are 
deemed practically impassable after nightfall, the 

26 



afeaeible JBver^wbere 

teachers'-meeting could be held on a week-day 
afternoon, as the mid-week prayer-meeting is 
ordinarily held in many a country parish. 

During the hours of daylight, at least, the 
country roads are available for travel. Bad 
roads are a difficulty in country communities, 
as they still are in our larger American cities ; 
but they are not wholly a barrier to locomo- 
tion, in either region, when people feel that 
they must be on the move. 

If the church, or the school-house, where the* 
Sunday-school has its sessions, is not a con- 
venient or comfortable place for a mid-week 
gathering, the teachers' -meeting can be held at 
the house of the superintendent, or at some 
house in a more central location ; or it can meet 
at different places, in different portions of the 
general field, from week to week, or from month 
to month. Where it is held is of minor impor- 
tance in comparison with the fact that it be held 
somewhere. 

The time of holding a teachers'-meeting is, 
27 



like the place of such a meeting, important, yet 
subordinate to the fact of its holding. The bet- 
ter way is to have an evening, or an afternoon, 
of a week-day, devoted to this gathering. The 
object is worthy of time enough, and the best 
time. If the choice had to be made, a church 
would be the gainer by having a teachers'-meet- 
ing instead of a mid-week prayer-meeting, rather 
than by consenting to do without a teachers'- 
meeting. But the teachers'-meeting might be 
held, in an emergency, on the same evening, or 
afternoon, as the mid-week prayer-meeting ; the 
former preceding or following the latter. Or, 
again, it might be held on a Sunday, just before 
or just after the regular school session; in the 
one case, the lesson considered being that of the 
day, and in the other case the lesson being that 
for the Sunday following. 

Either of these alternative plans would be 
simply better than nothing ; not a '' half loaf," 
but a bare bite. At one time or another, as at 
one place or another, and in one way or another, 

28 



Jfeaeible JEvevi^wbere 

the teachers'-meeting is feasible in any country 
Sunday-school, as it is an imperative necessity 
in every Sunday-school. 

If there is a comfortable church parlor, or a 
teachers'-meeting room at the church, well fur- 
nished, and supplied with a table around which 
all can gather cosily, that is a good place for 
the meeting. But, ordinarily, the Sunday-school 
room on a week-day evening, is a dreary and 
comfortless spot. A private house is more 
attractive. It helps the social element, which 
ought not to be lost sight of in such a gather- 
ing. It is commonly better to have the meeting 
continuously at one house, so that all shall 
know where to find it ; but in country districts, 
the moving from house to house, so as to equal- 
ize the travel, is generally preferred. There are 
regions where the teachers are so widely scat- 
tered as to make several meetings, rather than 
one, almost a necessity — the teachers of the dif- 
ferent districts grouping by themselves on 
teachers'-meeting evening or afternoon. But 

29 



this is an exceptional necessity. It is referred 
to only to show that a teachers'-meeting, in 
whole or in part, is possible anywhere. 

Well-conducted teachers'-meetings have been 
sustained for years in many scattered country 
communities, in summer and winter alike, in 
spite of all the obstacles to such gatherings 
generally. The writer was attending, in the 
winter time, a county Sunday-school conven- 
tion in Vermont, on the border of Canada, 
where, out of thirty-three Sunday-schools rep- 
resented, fourteen reported teachers'-meetings. 
These w^ere all country schools, among the hills, 
with the difficulties of rough roads, heavy snows, 
and scant and scattered population, to be over- 
come. At some of these meetings from one-half 
to two-thirds of the entire number of teachers 
were present, on an average, even in midwinter. 

And that Vermont county was not alone in 
this record. From Maine to Minnesota, similar 
country neighborhoods show similar success in 
the sustainincr of teachers'-meetins^s. 

30 



Jfeaatble lEvcx^vobcxc 

When a country superintendent in New Jer- 
sey wrote to the editor of The Sunday School 
Times, saying that it was practically impossible to 
get his teachers together for a teachers'-meeting, 
because of their being so widely scattered in a 
rural township, the editor responded : 

'^ How is it about funerals in your region ? 
Can you get up a fair gathering on a week-day 
to bury the dead ? If you can, you don't want 
to admit — do you ? — that your good people will 
do more to bury a dead body than to save a live 
soul ? 

"And then, again, did you ever see a turn-out 
of teams and foot-passengers to attend a circus 
or a menagerie — a * great moral show ' — in your 
part of the country ? Perhaps you never had a 
country singing-school in that corner of the 
world ! And the young people never could be 
induced to come together for an evening party, 
or for anything short of a regular church service 
on Sunday ! Nonsense ! Some of the best 
teachers'-meetings in the world are in scattered 

31 



country communities, where the teachers have 
to be picked up one by one, or two and two, 
and brought up to the superintendent's house ; 
or where the teachers'-meeting is ' held around ' 
on circuit." 

A Rhode Island superintendent, in a country 
Sunday-school, reported to that editor, that, 
while his seventeen teachers were scattered over 
a field of fi-om three to five miles' sweep, a 
teachers'-meeting had been kept up faithfully for 
fully fifteen years. As to the method of getting 
together the ladies who were " dependent on 
others for a way to pass over muddy roads," he 
said : 

*' Our pastor has a team, and he takes all 
who will accompany him from his section. The 
superintendent, living a mile or a mile and a 
half distant from his pastor, is always glad to 
take a full load from his neighborhood ; he 
having had a large spring-wagon fitted up for 
the purpose, which will accommodate nine. A 
lantern is carried in dark nights, as he goes from 

32 



3fea6tble JEver^wbcre 

house to house to get the party together. [A 
word to other country superintendents : * Let 
your Hght so shine ' in your field of labor.] 
Teachers who have teams call at various resi- 
dences along the route ; and thus they are 
gathered." 

This illustration would seem to meet, in one 
way, the question, how to get the teachers to- 
gether at a teachers'-meeting in the country. 

The spirit which would meet and overcome 
the surface difficulties in the way of a teachers'- 
meeting in the country, would triumph quite as 
surely over the correspondent difficulties in the 
city. It is true that it is not always easy for a 
city worker to find time for due preparation for 
the special Christian duties that he has volun- 
teered to perform ; but it is equally true that he 
must find time, and therefore can find it, to make 
whatever preparation is needful for any good 
work that he has volunteered to attend to. 
Hence it is that a teacher's failure to take time 
during the week for the preparation service that 

33 



is represented in the teachers'-meeting, is his 
failure to be a competent teacher in his place on 
Sunday. 

A teachers'-meeting ought to be conducted 
by the best man available — all things consid- 
ered. If the pastor is the best man for this 
work, as in many churches he is, he ought to be 
secured for it, if possible. But to be the best 
man for this work a pastor must know some- 
thing about Sunday-schools, something about 
scholars and teachers, and something about 
teaching. It is not enough for him to be sound 
in doctrine and a good preacher. He must be 
able to show his teachers how to teach the truth 
which they and he value ; and this he will not 
have learned in the average theological semi- 
nary or divinity school. There are many pastors 
who do not profess to know much about Sun- 
day-schools, nor care to attempt the training of 
their teachers. There are other pastors who 
are competent for this work, but who prefer to 
have it done by others. 

34 



i 



jfeaeible Everi^wberc 

Next to the pastor comes the superintendent 
as a desirable leader of the teachers'-meeting. 
vlf he is best fitted for that service, he ought to 
be pressed into it and kept at it, however he 
may shrink from it. There are cases, however, 
where the superintendent is an excellent mana- 
ger of the school as a whole, while he is not so 
well fitted to train and lead his teachers as is 
some one of their number. In such a case — 
as, in fact, in every case — the best man available 
for the special service ought to be secured for 
that service. 

The better the leader of a teachers'-meeting, 
the better the teachers'-meeting. Whether he 
be the pastor, the superintendent, or one of the 
teachers, if he can lead the teachers wisely in 
their conference over the lesson they are set to 
teach, they will be the gainers by thus being led. 

But, after all, it is the conference over their 
lesson by the teachers that is the thing of chief 
importance in a teachers'-meeting; and a con- 
ference can be secured where its leader is in no 

35 



^eacber6's= fuieetinge 

sense the superior of his fellows. Ten or a 
dozen teachers, or even two or three, coming 
together every week for a free and outspoken 
conference over their next lesson, will be likely 
to gain more from that conference than would 
five times their number who simply listened to a 
brilliant and scholarly address on the subject 
from their pastor. A teachers'-meeting can, in 
fact, lead itself, in the lack of a fitting leader. 

A teachers'-meeting is an essential in any 
well-ordered Sunday-school, — in city or country. 
Therefore a teachers'-meeting must be held; 
and, because it must be held, it can be. It is 
feasible in every Sunday-school, because it is a 
necessity there. In this thing, as in other things, 
"where there's a will there's a way;" and here 
there must be a will in order that there may be 
a way. 



36 



Ill 
flQetbo^0 of donbuctina 



il 



Ill 
/ll>etbo&s of Con&uctirtQ 

At least two persons are necessary for a 
teachers'-meeting. With that number secured, 
— one as the leader, and the other as the led, — 
a teachers'-meeting, in preparation for lesson 
teaching, is practicable in any community. Be- 
yond that number, the more the better for all 
concerned. Where the meeting is held, and 
when it is held, are, as has been shown, practi- 
cal questions that must be decided by those 
having the matter in charge, in view of the cir- 
cumstances of the particular locality. The 
general purpose of the meeting must, however, 
be the same in every instance, however varied 
are the methods of the meeting. 

A teachers'-meeting is primarily for the pur- 
pose of bringing the teachers into a better fitness 
for their teaching work, by means of giving to 

39 



each one present the benefit of the thought and 
study of all. The leader's first work, therefore, 
is, not to tell th'e teachers what they ought to 
know, and how they ought to use it, but it is to 
find out what they already know, or think they 
know, and how they are proposing to make use 
of their knowledge. Until the leader has this 
basis of work, he is not qualified to give his 
teachers the aid which they most need in the 
way of gaining added knowledge, or of using 
more wisely the knowledge they have. Hence 
it is that a wise questioning of the teachers, 
concerning the facts and teachings of the lesson 
under consideration, is the superintendent's mis- 
sion to begin with. 

It is, ordinarily, a mistake to look upon the 
teachers'-meeting as a gathering for the first 
study of the lesson; it ought rather to be 
viewed as a conference for the bringing before 
all the teachers the results of the lesson's sepa- 
rate study by each one. Therefore the leader 
may take it for granted, at the start, that the 

40 



flUetboDe of Conducting 

teachers are reasonably familiar with the lesson, 
and he may feel free to question them on that 
basis. If, indeed, there be present those who 
have not studied the lesson, this method pur- 
sued by the leader with those who have done so 
will be none the less effective as a means of 
instruction incidentally. 

A devotional spirit is essential to a good 
teachers'-meeting, and the expression of this 
spirit will naturally manifest itself in brief exer- 
cises of devotion at the opening of the meeting 
and at its close. But it ought not to be neces- 
sary to take time from the hour of the meeting 
to cultivate the spirit of devotion. The teachers 
have come together for conference over the 
lesson they are to teach, and their duty is to 
attend to the work for which they are assem- 
bled. Their coming and their going should be 
in a prayerful spirit ; but their moments conse- 
crated to mutual helpfulness in preparation for 
Bible teaching ought not to be taken for any- 
thing else. 

41 



^eacber6':5 fnleetinge 

The leader of a teachers'-meeting should have 
in his mind from the beginning the plan accord- 
ing to which he is to conduct it for the occasion. 
However he may vary his methods from time 
to time, he ought to come to every meeting with 
a well-defined plan for that meeting. The more 
familiarly he can question his teachers from the 
start, the more likely they are to respond freely 
to his questions, and to profit from the conference 
in which they thus have an intelligent share. 

His opening questions should relate to the 
place of this lesson in its series ; bringing out 
its connection with the lesson just before it, 
or with other portions of the record of which 
it is a part. From this beginning the leader's 
questions should go on, to draw out from the 
teachers their understanding of the facts and 
teachings and uses of the lesson before them, to 
its close ; he, meanwhile, being ready to make 
such suCTcrestions as seem needful to him, in the 
line of emphasis, or illustration, or correction of 
their statements. 

42 



finetboD6 ot Conducting 

Four things concerning the lesson under ex- 
amination are to be looked at, or are to be borne 
in mind as deserving attention, in the conduct 
of every teachers'-meeting; namely, the text, 
the teachings, the applications, and the methods 
of using. 

The text includes all of the context which is 
necessary to make the text clear as it stands. 
Its examination covers the meaning of the very 
words of Scripture here employed. That ex- 
amination will frequently disclose some startling 
misconception, by a relatively intelligent teacher, 
of the meaning of a familiar word ; while it will 
enable the competent leader to supply the 
results of his fullest knowledge of the text to 
those who are in want of it, to a degree before 
unsuspected by him. 

The teachings cover the truths taught by the 
words as they stand, extending to the central 
truth of the passage, and to its subordinate or 
incidental truths. An examination of these 
teachings, by and with the teachers, will enable 

43 



the leader to know the bent of mind and charac- 
ter, and the doctrinal strength and weakness, of 
his teachers severally, as would otherwise be im- 
possible to him. And ten wise words from the 
leader at the right time in the course of such an 
examination, would be likely to effect more for 
the correction of a teacher's error, or for the 
supply of a teacher's lack, than ten lectures 
delivered by him without his know^ledge of the 
teacher's particular need now disclosed to him. 

The applications are the practical bearings of 
the lesson-truths on character and life and duty. 
Here it is, peculiarly, that there is a gain in 
bringing out the views of different teachers, 
rather than attempting to give to all the views 
of one. No teacher or leader is so bright that 
his mind would see all the applications of a 
lesson truth, which might be brought out by ten 
or twenty bright teachers, of different modes of 
life and thought. Any correction or improve- 
ment of these, for which the leader is competent, 
is timely just here. 

44 



metboDe ot ConDucttn^ 

The methods of using the lesson, and its teach- 
ings, are the ways by which the teachers are to 
present and apply and illustrate those teachings 
to their scholars. This covers the whole range 
of the teaching process, as applicable to all 
grades and kinds of scholars. Valuable hints 
and suggestions in this line are likely to be 
brought out by different teachers, as a result of 
their skill and experience in teaching ; and if the 
leader be a better teacher than any of those 
whom he leads, he can make his superiority a 
benefit to all, by his supplemental hints and 
suggestions. 

First, What is said ? Second, What is meant? 
or What is taught ? Third, What is this to us, 
and to our pupils ? Fourth, How shall this be 
made clear ? The words ; their lessons ; their 
uses ; their showing. These points are to be 
brought out from the teachers, or to be brought 
before them, by wise questioning. The leader 
must know what he wants to teach or to learn, 
and he must be ready to supply any lack on the 

45 



^eacber0':s fnleettnQs 

teacher's part, so that what he has in his mind 
at the start shall be in their minds before the 
close of the meeting ; and the best that they 
have to give is also his possession. On the one 
hand, they may gain from his knowledge and 
suggestions. On the other hand, he may be 
benefited by their thoughts and questions. 

In some schools the leader can call on his 
teachers by name for answers ; wisely directing 
his questions according to their special attain- 
ments and capacity. In other schools this will 
not do, because of the danger of embarrassing 
the teachers. He must know what he can do 
safely, and what he cannot ; and he should keep 
himself within his limitations of ability and tact. 

Of course, it is not to be understood that 
every lesson is to be taken up for specific treat- 
ment in this fourfold way ; but it is to be under- 
stood by every teachers'-meeting leader that 
these four elements of knowledge are essential 
to a fitting preparation of a teacher for the wise 
use in his class of the lesson under consideration 

46 



fnietboD6 of Conducting 

by him, and that all four of them are to receive 
due attention in their time and place. It is, 
therefore, important for the leader to find out, in 
passing along, whether any of the words of the 
' text are misunderstood by the teachers ; whether 
the teachers have an intelligent idea of the truths 
taught by the lesson ; whether they see the 
applications of those teachings to the practical 
life of to-day ; and whether they know just how 
they are to illustrate and apply them to their 
scholars severally. 

In comparing the results of study in a 
teachers'-meeting, the leader is to do more by 
his questioning of the teachers than by his 
words of address to them. It is a great deal 
more important that he should find out what 
they know, or what they think, than that they 
should find out, just then and there, what he 
knows or what he thinks. A teachers'-meeting 
ought always to have the conversational charac- 
ter. A lecture is out of place in a teachers'- 
meeting. It deprives the meeting of its prime 

47 



value, and it is very likely to kill the meeting, 
or to make it a practical failure. Lecturing and 
teaching are distinct and dissimilar exercises. 
A good lecture to teachers may be of decided 
value in its place and time, but it does not lead 
teachers in the mutual examination of the les- 
son in hand. Lecturing the teachers is never 
the leading of a teachers'-meeting — whoever 
attempts it. 

How to teach the lesson considered, is a ques- 
tion of practical importance in every teachers'- 
meeting. Most teachers know more than their 
pupils know. Most teachers know more of the 
lesson they want to teach, than they can cause 
their pupils to know. In other words, most 
teachers know more of the lesson than they can 
teach; for the essence of teaching is causing 
another to know, and one who cannot cause 
another to know, cannot teach. Hence it is 
quite as necessary in the teache.rs'-meeting to 
help teachers to know /lozu to teach the lesson, 
as to help them to know zu/iat to teach of it, or 

48 



fnietboDe ot ConDucttng 

by it. In this line teachers can help one another, 
and the leader ought to be able to help all. 

Asking particular teachers how they propose 
to teach to their pupils the main truth of the 
lesson, is one way of getting suggestions of wise 
methods of teaching. In some cases it may be 
well for the leader, or one of the teachers, to take 
the teachers'-meeting in hand, and teach the 
lesson to its members as if they were a class. 
After this has been done, comments on the 
teaching, or suggestions as to it, may be asked 
for from the others. Thus the teachers'-meeting 
may, for the time being, be a normal class. 

Where teachers are backward in taking part 
in the teachers'-meeting, or where a teachers'- 
meeting is being started among those who think 
that the teachers in that school will not be ready 
to answer any questions, it may be well for the 
leader to help along by assigning particular 
questions, or subjects, to particular teachers. 
This may be done in various ways. The leader 
may, in advance, ask one teacher to be ready to 

49 



tell what is known of the author of the book 
of the Bible from which the lesson is taken; 
another to give facts about the place where its 
events happened ; another to point out any 
parallel, or correspondent, passage or incident 
in the Bible record; and so on. The answers 
may be given to him in writing, if the teachers 
are reluctant to speak out. 

Again, the leader may distribute in advance 
slips of paper to several teachers, with the re- 
quest that they will write, in a few words, the 
main thought or truth of the lesson as they 
understand it, and return the slips to him, to be 
read aloud in the meeting, or to be called out 
by him in response to his oral questions. Yet 
again, he may quietly designate, a week before- 
hand, particular teachers for the answer of 
special questions on the lesson text, in order 
that they may come prepared to have an active 
part in the meeting. 

The advantage of such methods is, that in- 
experienced or bashful teachers will be given 

50 



fBletboD6 ot ConDucting 

something to work at, and be helped to take 
an intelligent share in the common exercise, 
while they are an example and encouragement 
to others. It is not well to give much promi- 
nence to these modes of helping some teachers 
to take a part, lest other teachers should wait to 
be similarly helped. The better way is for the 
leader to go on with the lesson as if he were 
relying on all present to have a share, and then 
to make use of these results of special prepara- 
tion as they come along in their place. 

There is no one way of conducting a teachers'- 
meeting that can fairly be called the best way. 
Each school requires its own line of treatment, 
and each leader will do his work according to 
his own judgment, and his own idea of the 
special needs of his teachers. Yet every leader, 
whether experienced or a novice, is ready to 
learn from the ways of others, and is glad to 
consider a suggestion or an example of methods 
deemed practicable. 

Methods differ according to the nature of the 

51 



lesson under examination. If it is in the narra- 
tive form it must be differently handled from a 
passage including commands, or an exhortation, 
or a statement of doctrine. 

An illustration may be given of several points 
in the treatment of a narrative lesson, by way 
of suggestion. The text of the narrative is 
read by the leader, or by one of the teachers, 
with a request for special attention to it on the 
part of all present. Then, when the Bibles are 
closed, the leader asks a teacher to give, in his 
own words, the substance of what has just 
been read. Afterwards he calls on another 
teacher to say if aught was omitted or added 
in the recital, and, if so, what ? Other teachers 
are asked for further corrections. In this way 
the facts of the lesson are brought clearly before 
the minds of all. 

The lesson is one of the International series, 
from Daniel 3:13-18, entitled ''The Brave Young 
Men." It having been read by a teacher, the 
leader begins as follows : 

52 



fnletboDe ot Conducting 

Leader, — Will Miss Brown give, in her own 
words, the substance of the lesson which has 
just been read? 

Miss Brown. — Nebuchadnezzar ordered the 
three young men, Shadrach, Meshach, and 
Abednego, to be brought before him. When 
they came, he asked them if it was true that 
they had refused to worship the golden image 
he had set up. Then he said that if they did 
not fall down and worship that image when they 
heard the sound of the music, they should be 
cast into a fiery furnace, where no God could 
help them. 

Leader. — Will Mr. Thompson go on with the 
narrative ? 

Mr, Thompson. — The three young men said 
that they were not anxious in this matter. Their 
God was able to deliver them out of the fiery 
furnace, and, any way, they would not worship 
the image Nebuchadnezzar had set up. 

Leader. — Were there any important omis- 
sions from, or additions to, the Bible narrative 

53 



in these recitals? Any teacher may name such 
as he noted. 

Mr. Williams. — Miss Brown omitted to say 
that Nebuchadnezzar was verj- angry when he 
sent for the three young men. 

Miss JoJinsoii. — She did not mention that he 
asked them if they refused to serve his gods. 

Miss SviitJi. — ]\Ir. Thompson failed on the 
same point. He forgot to say that the young 
men said they would not serve Nebuchadnezzar's 
gods, any more than they would worship the 
image. 

Mr. Jones. — He also omitted their assurance 
that God would deliver them out of the king's 
hands. 

Miss Wilsoji. — ]\Iiss Brown omitted Nebu- 
chadnezzar's assurance to them that it would 
be well with them if they would worship the 
image. 

Leader. — There was an addition to the narra- 
tive concerning these three men made by both 
Miss Brown and ]\Ir. Thompson, and repeated 

54 



fiQctboDs ct ConDucttng 

by at least two of the teachers who have criti- 
cised them. Can any one tell what that addi- 
tion was ? 

Miss Denton.' — Was it calling the men "young " 
men? 

Leader. — Were they not young? 

Miss Denton. — This narrative does not say 
they were. 

Mr. Bennett. — But they are called ''The 
Brave Young Men" in the title of the lesson. 

Leader. — That may be. But we are now 
considering what these Bible verses tell, not 
what we are led from other sources to infer 
about the men it mentions. 

As to the main teachings of the lesson, the 
leader asks for volunteer expressions of opinion. 
Thus: 

Leader. — Will any teacher say what important 
truth seems to be taught by this incident? 

Miss Johnson. — If a command of any ruler calls 
for a violation of an explicit command of God, 
it ought not to be obeyed by a child of God. 

5S 



Leader, — What explicit command of God for- 
bade the obeying of Nebuchadnezzar's command ? 

Miss Johnson, — The Second Commandment? 

Mk Thompson. — A breach of the First Com- 
mandment, also, was implied in the command of 
King Nebuchadnezzar. 

Leader. — How so ? 

Mr. Thompson. — Nebuchadnezzar wanted his 
gods, as well as his image, to be worshiped. 
He refers to that when he asks the Hebrews if 
they will not worship his gods. 

Leader. — That is so. And now is any other 
great truth taught in the lesson ? 

Mr, Williams. — The question of the conse- 
quences of doing right is not to stand in the 
way of a determined refusal to do wrong. 

Leader. — Yes. There is also a comforting 
truth taught here. God can help his children 
in any extremity. He can be trusted to do 
what is best. 

Now, a few words as to the applications, and 
mode of using the lesson. 

56 



flfletboDs of ConDuctiitQ 

Leader, — Miss Brown, you have a class of 
wide-awake boys ; how do you propose to pre- 
sent this lesson to them? 

Miss Brown. — I intend, after going through 
the story with them, to bring it right home to 
themselves by questioning them about their 
temptations to do wrong; to drink, or smoke; 
to go to the theater, or circus; to use profane 
language ; to do as * all the other boys ' seem 
to ; and then I shall try to show them that they 
are asked in this way to worship a vile image, 
with the threat of being laughed at, and cast 
into a furnace of social contempt ; and that it is 
their duty to stand right up bravely and defy 
their tempters, trusting in God to keep them 
safely. 

Leader. — Mr. Thompson, you have a class 
of "mothers in Israel," how shall you bring this 
lesson home to them ? 

Mr. Thompson. — I intend to bring out the 
lesson of the sublime faith of these men for my 
class. I shall dwell on the rest of their trust in 

57 



their God. They could leave everything to him. 
They didn't care what Nebuchadnezzar pro- 
posed, or did. One thing was certain, their 
God could take care of them, and would. They 
were going to trust him, and worship none other 
than God. Then I shall help my scholars, by 
questioning, to see that in all their fiery trials of 
bereavement, or sorrow, or sickness, or sin, they 
have the same rest in the same God. 

These are merely suggestions as to modes 
of treating a lesson in the teachers'-meeting. 
They are not models or patterns. At the best 
they are but illustrative. Other and better ways 
will be found by a leader to work well in his 
field, as he gains in practice and skill. Further 
suggestions as to wise methods in the teachers'- 
meeting are to be found in the author's *' A 
Model Superintendent" (pp. 44-50); and his 
" Teaching and Teachers " (pp. 1 16-137). 

Reviews ought to have a place in the teach- 
ers'-meeting. Quarterly Review Sunday is quite 
as important as any other Sunday of the quarter; 

58 



firXetboDa of ConDuctlng 

yet it is not welcomed by all teachers as it 
should be. The teachers'-meeting preceding 
Quarterly Review Sunday might well be given 
to the subject of reviews. Different methods of 
review may be canvassed, and the best decided 
on. 

This is a good time to learn what the teachers 
have taught during the quarter; and as to this the 
superintendent needs information. Each teacher 
may indeed be asked what truth he emphasized 
in his class from each lesson of the quarter. A 
few teachers may be taken as specimens for this 
exercise, for one meeting; and thus, in turn, all 
may be examined. 

Mere repetition is not review. A good review 
is a new view. The lessons reviewed on Review 
Sunday are to be looked at not only separately, 
but collectively; and it is in the teachers'-meet- 
ing that a wise leader can learn from his teach- 
ers, and can help his teachers to learn, how to 
do this. 

In one way or another, and in one way and 

59 



ireacbet6':s fllleetinc]6 

another, a teachers'-meeting can be so conducted 
as to make it helpful to all the teachers, and 
profitable to the whole school. A teachers'- 
meeting conducted in the best way is desirable 
for any school. A teachers'-meeting conducted 
in the best way, or in a poorer way, is feasible in 
every school. If a Sunday-school has not a 
teachers'-meeting of some sort, it is not really 
entitled to be called a Sunday-school. The 
superintendent might say to such a school, with 
reference to its lack of a teachers'-meeting: '* I 
know thy works, that thou hast a name that 
thou livest, and thou art dead." 



60 



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